Un Poco Tarde

Hey everyone how´s it going? Sorry I´m writing so late, we had interviews with President Detlefsen today and we just barely got here to the internet place a little while ago. We were last in interviews so we had to wait a ton of time but it´s all good. Things are going pretty well out here in Mar Del Plata. The transfer is flying by I can´t believe it, now when we have General Conference we have transfers the same weekend. Things are going really well after the conference, we came out of that with a ton of excitement and desires to get better and now we´ve found that putting it into practice is a little harder, but it´s worth the pain and struggle. Interviews tonight for me at least helped me keep the focus on our new goals and the changes we are making as a mission. It´s gonna be a great time. We have 5 people that are gonna get baptized next Saturday the 25th which is going to be awesome. We have Viki, Magali, Pedro, Angelica, and Agustine the son of Adriana. We´d put a baptismal date with Adriana as well for the 25th and she´d accepted, but a few days later she said no cause she wanted to be really sure about getting married to Luis. She says she wants to strengthen the relationship that she has, bla bla bla to be honest I stopped listening a little bit. It´s ok though, she´s still doing good and she´ll definitely get baptized. It´s just an insanely slow process. Besides that we´re just working on finding new people, we have a new mission standard of finding 15 new investigators every week, we´ve been averaging around 5 or 6 so it´ll take some work but it´s gonna be great. President is amazing and gave me a ton of faith that we can actually do it and that we will do it!! Things with the district are going pretty good as well. All the missionaries are really good guys and are working hard. We can always get better and there are a lot of things that we need to improve and we´re looking for those things so we can be more effective and be better all in all. The visit of Elder Aidukaitis has basically changed everything but we´re headed in a much straighter line towards our goal. The mission is great let´s just put it that way. Yes it´s really hard, there are days that are really difficult, but it´s amazing. I know I´ve said it before but I´ll say it again, I wouldn´t change this for anything. I love this job, I love this country and the people even when they don´t wanna listen or they´re stubborn, or they´re lazy and don´t fufill commitments. At the same time you still gotta love them. Ok I gotta get going but I love you all!!! Thanks for everything and all the support!!!!
Elder Gaughan

Pictures

Elder Egbert and Elder Gaughan

Elder Dominguez and Elder Gaughan

Conference in Bahía: Elder Alberca, Unzaga, Gaughan, and Cox 

Elder Bills and Elder Gaughan

Conferencia con Elder Aidukaitis

Hey everybody what´s up? Well this week has been pretty eventful to say the least. On friday I went on divisions with Elder Alberca the zone leader in his area. It rained harder than cats and dogs if that´s possible but it was still a pretty good day. We taught a one of their baptismal dates named Cristina and her less active husband Fabian. It was a way good lesson. Fabian got baptized when he was 17, went on his mission to Paraguay, was assistant, got home and went inactive. It was pretty crazy to see and helped me to realize that we always need to keep going after everything that we already know. Enduring to the end is the hardest part, but also the most important. Cristina is awesome, she´s a golden investigator and is gonna be a great member of the church. After that we went over to Belgrano to do some more baptismal interviews, this time the guy passed which was pretty sweet and the kid that failed the interview I did kept learning and got interviewed by Alberca and also passed so that was really good to see. On saturday I went on divisions once again in a town called Batán which is right outisde of Mar Del with Elder Gilvonio. He´s from Perú and a pretty interesting guy. He´s got a great testimony and works hard but is in a pretty tough area, we were doing contacts almost all day and didn´t really get much. It kinda reminded me of Santa Rosa haha but it was a good experience anyway. Sunday I was finally back with my comp in Newbery. We went to church, the day was going pretty normal. Mirta finally came back to church which was awesome to see and we went to go visit her after and started teaching her friend and boyfriend. Then we went to Pedro and Angelica to see how they were doing, right after we get there they said that Elder Alberca had called. He´d gone to Bahía for a meeting with all the zone leaders that they do once a month. About ten minutes after we get there Alberca calls again and tells me that I have to pack my bags and jump on the 1030 bus to Bahía that night with the other district leader from the zone. Elder Aidukaitis from the 70/area presidency was there and wanted all of the district leaders there too for the conference on monday. We take off for the house, I threw a few things together, run over to the bus terminal buy a ticket and take off for Bahía that night.
The conference was awesome!!! Aidukaitis is from Brazil and said that really great stuff that we needed to hear. The mission hadn´t really been doing all that well numbers wise which is never good cause that is how success is measured and he basically told us that the mission was the way it was because of us the leaders. He talked a ton about paying the price, setting the example, being more obedient and after doing all that, teaching the other missionaries of our districts/zones how to do it. Everything has to start with us first. It was interesting cause at the beginning he asked us if he could be frank with us, we said yes and he definitely was. There´s a phrase that they use a lot down here which is "drop the cane", that´s what he did with us. But he did it in a really good way, cause after absolutely destroying us, he built us back up and helped to realize that we´re capable of doing everything that he asks and that President Detlefsen asks of us. Amazing conference I must say. I also saw Elder Johnson and Elder Schmidt, two of my good buddies from my MTC distict which was great. I´ll be sending pics soon I promise, things have just been kinda crazy lately and I haven´t had a whole lot of time. I gotta get going but thanks for everything, the support, love, prayers, packages, all of it!!!! Que tengan una muy buena semana
Elder Gaughan

Enfermo=No Bueno

Hola familia cómo estáis? Things are going pretty well here out in Mar Del. It´s funny that you ask me how I´m doing fisically and to tell you the truth I´ve been pretty sick for the last few days. On monday I woke up with fever and all kinds of fun stuff, didn´t go out in the morning and went to a few appointments in the afternoon and called it quits. Yesterday I was feeling quite a bit better and I worked the whole day which could have been a mistake cause I fell back into the fever and all that fun stuff today, not cool. Aside from that we´re doing pretty good out here. We finally set a baptismal date with Angelica and Pedro, the paper they needed should be getting here this week so within the next few weeks they should be able to get married and baptized!!!! WHOO!!!!! We´ve been working with them for a super long time and they´re finally almost there!!!! Pray for them so that they can make it. We´re also gonna baptize 2 sisters of Carlos on the same day so that should be pretty amazing. The date for right now is the 18th of Sept. We´ve been finding a few new people but they haven´t really been progressing at all so we´ll just have to wait and see what happens with them. I can´t remember if I said this last week but the mission is going through a ton of changes and it´s been awesome. Now we have to set a baptismal date in the first lesson and we have a goal of teaching the restauration once a day, way cool stuff. It´s tough some days but it´s awesome. I had my first baptismal interview last thursday and the kid failed. He was going good and then said we wasn´t willing to keep the law of chastity which is kind of a big one. Supposedly the kid didn´t understand me too well and that could´ve been a reason but he´s gonna have another interview this weekend so he should be good. It was a pretty interesting experience for the first time doing a baptismal interview but there you go. I have to go do some more on fri so that should be awesome and we´ll have to wait and see what happens. Oh remember when they robbed my coat like a month ago? Well it had my plaque on it and apparently the kids used my tag to rob some old lady. We had to do a ton of reports and stuff and my name made it to the area presidency or something like that. Cool no? So far nothing´s happened on that point and we´re gonna keep hoping that nothing comes up. Well it seems like everything is going well out there which makes me quite happy I must say. Tell alex happy late birthday for me cause the kid doesn´t write me. I love you all, thanks for everything!!

Elder Gaughan